Tuck Boxes... please explain to me what in the world these are for.

[CoastalMummy]

Just as the title says. What is a tuck box used for and do I genuinely need to spend £100 on one?

She talked about sharing it for the midnight feast (of course there was a midnight feast) so I’m Team Cake.

I went to boarding school in the early 70s because my parents were overseas. The food was mean and terrible, so much so that I was diagnosed with severe vitamin deficiency. My beloved aunt used to load my tuck box with fruit, jam, biscuits, cakes and tins of spam, and a jar of Virol, each exeat and half term in an effort to prevent starvation.

Officially it’s a place to store ‘tuck’ but also it’s very useful as a safe space for private or valuable items. In the younger years we were given lockers in a common room, but they were not rodent proof!

At the boarding school I went to not everyone had one, but I used mine until I had a single room.

She will be judged by a Gwendoline Mary.

Yep, I think this was Elizabeth Allen from the Naughtiest Girl in the School series - the one with the very progressive boarding school, Whyteleafe. On the first day, everyone shared what the goodies they had brought from home in their tuck boxes. Someone else had brought an amazing, melt in the mouth chocolate cake her granny made, which made Elizabeth's jam sandwich (i.e. Victoria sandwich) sound terribly ordinary by comparison!

I'm another not convinced by the jam sandwich debate. Why not a sandwich? I'm sure that some kids used to eat on the journey. London to Cornwall

... in the 40s would have taken hours and they would have been starving.

But the tuck wasn’t for the journey, it was shared at teatime on the first few days.

Why not a sandwich? I'm sure that some kids used to eat on the journey. London to Cornwall

They wouldn't have had their tuckboxes with them in the compartment, would they? There wouldn't have been room, and how would they have managed them getting off the train, along with their overnight cases, hockey sticks, etc?

Ringing bells!!

And don’t forget Tongue !

In his autobiography “Boy”, Roald Dahl describes how a fellow pupil kept a pet frog in his tuck box, and when nobody admitted to sprinkling sugar over the corridor floor to make the matron’s feet crunch as she prowled the corridor, all the boys’ keys to their tick boxes were confiscated on the spot.

My DB still has his from 50 years ago and turned it into a portable bar 😂

God I was so jealous of the tuck boxes I read about in NG/ MT etc. Although I was always confused about how the cake survived a term until the midnight feast- surely it would have been a bit stale?

@CoastalMummy I asked DS and he said that although everyone in his house has one you wouldn't get in trouble for not having one at his school. People use them mainly as overflow/lockable storage (in his case his "naice" aftershave and his Arsenal shirt so it's not kidnaped and abused by Spurs supporters). Tuck is less of a thing now because they can all just go to the shops at the weekend if they're in or get more from home if they're not, so no need to take 6 week's worth of junk to school in one go. If you do fold and buy the Mosman's one, don't bother with the key- just use a padlock- the keys are really flimsy and get lost and the lock is kind of crappy anyway.

I have my dad’s tuck box from when he was at boarding school with his initials on it. It’s a lovely thing to have!

Serious answer: they are used for Stuff. Including sweets, but also personal items like toys. DS got one in prep school, had it through senior school and takes it to university. Cost is about £8 a year given how long he’s had it. You don’t necessarily need to get one from mossman - look online. I bought an unfinished one and painted it, and stencilled in the name. DS values it hugely.

Ronald Dahl has a good description of them in his autobiography too.

I wouldn’t not send something - I think any lockable box would be fine. Get the dimensions of how big it is allowed to be, you could get a small lockable cash box from the hardware store or a small lockable tool box

Our school has a tuck shop but also specified the size of a tuck box - so you don't have to get the official trunk type ones at all. Dd likes ramen and things from the Chinese supermarket in our town in hers as she can get the usual sweets at the school tuck shop.

I was always confused about how the cake survived a term until the midnight feast- surely it would have been a bit stale?

Would depend what it was. A good fruitcake should keep.

In school stories, people are sent tuck parcels or birthday cakes throughout the term.

Or for the midnight feast, Uncle Bob sends a Postal Order and they sneak out and buy the goodies.

@HonoriaBulstrode apparently way back in the 50s one of my mums uncles was doing his National Service and was sent a homemade fruitcake in a tin.
It would have taken a while to get to him as he was abroad. Apparently the letter home said something like "Thanks for the cake. Once we picked the mould off it was lovely" 😂😂

Mine too! Still going strong 45 years on. My grandparents loved being the ones to fill it up, it also housed coffee and teabags, and things like squash and spare stationery.

My DD has a Mossman one at prep as do most of her mates but it’s not used for their tuck - the house parents keep that safely locked away!

The girls seem to use them for keeping special bits and pieces, shoe cleaning gear, letter writing stuff etc.

My favourite part of boarding school! We were allowed 5 items every Friday

Once we picked the mould off it was lovely

That's what one did back then.